118 14 10
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Celia was born with another baby's head atop her head and everyone in the village thought her cursed. It was because Celia's mother had been too young to be intimate with a man, twelve only, and the man, important in the village,…
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118 12 6
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118 10 7
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We should put him out of his misery.
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117 10 6
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A writer was looking for characters for a new story and decided to rent out a room in his brain, thinking it might attract someone interesting. Given the poor real estate market, there were no takers, and he decided to offer the room for…
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117 11 8
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117 7 6
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115 8 4
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Women have been mean to women since Biblical times, Sarah and Hagar vying for Abraham's loyalty, to the Archie comics with best friend rivals Betty and Veronica. Usually the conflict is over a man, but it could be merely envy or a…
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115 5 1
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Larry’s unwashed hands held a cardboard sign. Two largely printed words that would, every now and then, elicit a thumbs up. “Got Pot?” was the only question he really wanted an answer to.
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115 5 2
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When you sit long enoughthe low-lying scrubbegin to swaynot with the windbut of their own volition.It takes timefor them to trust youWhen you sit long enoughthe tree top brancheswelcome waves of fogand gently pushthe mist inland.It takes timefor the cloud-tide to rise.When…
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115 7 7
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The High Priest Psychiatrist at Orwellian Industries Medical Center where I used to work loved to hear himself say the following, to my horror, at every staff meeting: "We psychiatrists prescribe the poisons to the patients and the…
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115 15 7
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114 8 7
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I would like to credit St. Mary's and St. Joseph's for my decision to become a Buddhist nun. The day after I sacrificed my virginity to Johnny Delaney, St. Joseph's star quarterback, he dumped me for Fiona Kelly. That's when I decided to…
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111 20 5
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111 2 1
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A blue oil lamp on the piano behind a screen where Hedda Gabler shoots herself in that last scene.The audience hears, but cannot see, the gunshot. An elderly man —— new to the play and totally caught up in the story —— audily gasps, "Oh my…
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111 7 3
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110 9 3
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She was seeing a new psychiatrist because her old one had died and she resented having to see any psychiatrists at all but needed medication for depression. This one was blonde, blue-eyed with a Russian accent. From the way…
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108 0 0
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and so you waits for years, and he decides that all he needs to learn, he can learn from this woman, the contents of her ether being syrupy and more lush in his mouth than all the words of bound philosophy.
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108 19 5
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Obesity in America is now considered a felony, thanks to Michelle Obama's biceps and weight obsession. They've sent me to couch potato prison where I'm doing hard time in a dark corner of an unfinished basement filled with cobwebs that…
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107 11 7
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106 7 4
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Moral Dilemmas at Harvard
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106 14 8
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106 18 9
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Nobody looks for Gina between the hours of four and five. Her father is on swing shift for the rest of the summer; his two o'clock- dinner plates are soaking in a sinkful of scummy water. Her mother is fanning herself in the shade of the wisteria, most of her…
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105 10 6
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105 6 4
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105 11 7
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105 8 5
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Every morning when she arrived at work, Jackie filled her bright red cup with coffee, sat down at her desk and riffled through Women's Wear Daily to see if there were any candid photos taken of her walking down Fifth Avenue where…
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104 10 7
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At first, it was tedious, those long Russian names, the convoluted story, but recess after recess he stayed in and became enchanted
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104 6 4
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104 6 4
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There are horse drawn carriages, gentlemen in top hats,
it's the turn of some century, before souls were stored in jars.
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103 8 6
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She doesn't think about bad things anymore. She used to worry about nukes. She'd imagine Hiroshimas everywhere. She'd imagine the seas rising, the planet a string of deserts, polar bears drowning, butterflies shriveling. The world…
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